Santolina

Santolina
Santolina chamaecyparissus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Subfamily: Asteroideae
Tribe: Anthemideae
Genus: Santolina
L.
Type species
Santolina chamaecyparissus
Synonyms[1]
  • Chamomilla (Hall) Gray

Santolina is a genus of plants in the chamomile tribe within the sunflower family, primarily from the western Mediterranean region.[2][3]

They are small evergreen shrubs growing 10–60 cm (4–24 in) tall. The leaves are simple and minute in some species, or pinnate, finely divided in other species, often densely silvery hairy, and usually aromatic. The composite flowerheads are yellow or white, produced in dense globose capitula 1–2 cm in diameter, on top of slender stems held 10–25 cm (4–10 in) above the foliage. There are no ray florets.[4]

Santolina species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Bucculatrix santolinella (feeds exclusively on S. chamaecyparissus) and the Coleophora case-bearers C. albicella (recorded on S. chamaecyparissus), C. involucrella (feeds exclusively on Santolina spp) and C. santolinella (feeds exclusively on S. chamaecyparissus).[citation needed]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference g was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Linnaeus, Carl von. 1753. Species Plantarum 2: 842–843 in Latin
  3. ^ Tropicos, Santolina L.
  4. ^ RHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants. United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. 2008. p. 1136. ISBN 978-1405332965.